Patulous eustachian tube complicating gastric bypass surgery.

OBJECTIVE

We report the first case in the English literature of a patulous eustachian tube occurring after laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery for obesity.

METHOD: Case report of a 44-year-old woman who was referred to our ENT clinic complaining of autophonia and bilateral aural fullness. The patient had noticed these symptoms after she had undergone a laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery to aid weight loss.

RESULT: On the basis of the medical history, clinical examination and immittance measurement (revealing a change in acoustic immittance synchronous with normal breathing in the right ear), a diagnosis of patulous eustachian tube was made, more severe in the right ear than the left.

CONCLUSION

We report a case of patulous eustachian tube occurring after laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery for weight loss, which could be considered as one of the possible complications of this surgery. Our patient began to notice the symptoms of patulous eustachian tube after a 20 kg weight loss.